SASEBO NAVAL BASE, Japan  The Navy minesweeper that got stuck on a reef off the coast of the Philippines will have to be dismantled and removed in sections, a process that is expected to take over a month, Navy officials said Wednesday.

The salvage plan is still under review by the Philippine Coast Guard, but it likely means the end for the 23-year-old USS Guardian.

Our naval architecture and salvage experts have reviewed all possible alternatives, and our only supportable option is to dismantle the damaged ship and remove it in sections, Pacific Fleet spokesman Lt. Anthony Falvo wrote in an email to Stars and Stripes.

We have the right team of experienced professionals to conduct this complex operation and to ensure that it is done safely while minimizing damage to the surrounding marine environment. We expect the first floating crane to arrive in a few days and the dismantling to take over a month  we will work to conduct the operation as quickly as safety, weather and environmental protection allows.

No one was injured when the ship ran aground around 2:25 a.m. on Jan. 17 while transiting the Sulu Sea after a port visit in Subic Bay. The crew of 79 was removed the next day as a safety precaution.

Over the last two weeks, the 224-foot ship has slid around on Tubbataha Reef, a World Heritage Site, damaging the reef and causing hull breaches. Its compartments have taken on water as crews worked to remove hazardous materials and secure items for removal.

Navy officials said earlier this week they had removed 15,000 gallons of diesel fuel, 671 gallons of lubricating oil, dry food stores, paints and solvents and the crews personal effects.

After the fuel was removed, seawater was pumped into the tanks to counter the ships newfound buoyancy, Task Force Unit Guardian spokesman Lt. Cmdr. James Stockman said Tuesday from Manila. Kevlar bands were used to reinforce the ships structure after almost two weeks of punishing seas had worn away much of the hulls fiberglass coating.

The Philippine Coast Guard is going to review the salvage plan of the U.S. Navy, and more information will be forthcoming soon, Stockman wrote in an email to Stars and Stripes. The ship is currently stable, and we continue with our preparations for removal of Guardian from the reef.

An investigation into the cause of the grounding is ongoing, and the crew arrived back at their homeport of Sasebo on Monday. Two contracted heavy lift ships fitted with cranes from Singapore are en route and will remove the damaged ship.

Rear Admiral Jeffrey Harley, commander of CTF-76, said Monday that the Navy is looking at what effects being down one forward-deployed mine countermeasure ship might have on operations in the Pacific.

The Guardian was the fifth of 14 Avenger-class mine countermeasure ships to be put into service, according to their website. Four are forward-deployed to Sasebo, Japan; the others are based in Bahrain and San Diego. They are scheduled to be replaced in the coming years by Littoral Combat Ships, which can be fit with a minesweeping package but have been hampered by cost overruns, design deficiencies and delays.

Malaysian tug Vos Apollo prepares for defueling operations near the grounded USS Guardian on Jan. 24, 2013, while a U.S. Navy small boat approaches with a salvage team. The U.S. Navy contracted Vos Apollo to assist with removing fuel from the mine countermeasures ship, which ran aground on the Tubbataha Reef in the Sulu Sea on Jan. 17. No fuel has leaked since the grounding and all of the approximately 15,000 gallons onboard Guardian was safely transferred to Vos Apollo during two days of controlled defueling operations on Jan. 24 and Jan. 25. Geoffrey Trudell/U.S. Navy

Actually, ... I am employed with a company that manufactures the transmissions for the Bradley, as well as components for the Abrams and the big diesel engines for the tank recovery vehicles, some of the pictures and videos from the recent conflicts in the middle east might surprise you. Let’s just say, there is no fixin’ stupid, no matter the branch of service.

I haven't seen anything that says it outright, but apparantly the reef is a UN "World Heritage Site" or something like that, a crane could not be used to lift it off because of fears of damaging the reef, and the Navy had to call in a tug from Malaysia to clean up some spilled diesel - so YES, I imagine the Navy Brass had to go into politically-correct environmental mode for this.

Now hear this, you unpatriotic bozos and bozettes. United States Naval Vessels strike only, ONLY, uncharted reefs. The UN has some hell of a nerve putting one of their precious and pristeen World Heritage Sites in uncharted waters.

This must be very near where the sub captain ran his nuke-laden submersible into an uncharted (of course) undersea mountain at 1000 feet down and 40 knts.

By the way, that beautiful little ship is floating. Send out the committee boat from any yacht club on the Chesapeake and tow the damn thing off the reef. Fiberglass can take it, and if it can't, some temporary plywood and a quickie epoxy job should make her like new after a trip to any decent yard.

If the Filipinos have some sort of objection, TS. Couple rounds from the old Krag should send them scampering. Environment problem is it? One deep breath in any Philippine city can shrivel the lungs of an American in about 30 seconds.

Is this the thanks we get for teaching'em baseball? The bastards!

24
posted on 01/30/2013 7:41:04 PM PST
by Kenny Bunk
(Say, what the hell happened to Reggie Love? Who's in the playroom with Barry now?)

The last US Navy ship lost to grounding was the USS La Moure County, LST-1194, when she ran at flank speed onto the rocks off Caleta Cifuncho Bay, Chile during a training exercise.

The impact shredded her bow, keel, screws, and rudders, causing extensive flooding and the dumping of some 40,000 gallons of fuel. Pulled off the rocks by a Chilean tug, she was towed up to a nearby naval base, where US salvage experts examined her and determined that she was too badly damage to repair. Stripped of all salvageable material, she was towed out to sea and sunk during a training exercise a few months later.

La Moure County grounding was due to the the nav team plotting GPS fixes that were in WGS-84 datum on a paper chart that used a local datum so positions were off. Lots of lessons learned messages from that one.

Kind of like the Honda Point Disaster back in 1923, when the navigator of the lead destroyer failed to realize that a massive earthquake a week earlier had caused severe current fluctuations in the area. The fourteen ships of DESRON 11 turned and charged full speed onto the rocks at Honda Point instead of into the Santa Barbara Channel.

Seven destroyers were lost, two were damaged, and twenty-three sailors died in the fiasco.

should have used Google Earth or something
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
During WWII (1942)the Germans were raising havoc on the East Coast, using lights from the shore (they refused to shut down and darken the coast line) to sink tankers and such that were going up the East Coast.. They stood out like targets in a shooting gallery.

Anyway, one of the Subs involved got into NY Harbor, and the skipper says they used the lights and an Esso road map to navigate.

“Operation Drumbeat” (Gannon).

32
posted on 01/31/2013 5:33:22 PM PST
by xrmusn
(6/98 "It is virtually impossible to clean the pond as long as the pigs are still crapping in it")

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